High street support (1)

Gareth Bacon: What specific work have you undertaken, or are yet to undertake, on supporting London’s high streets through this crisis?

The Mayor: I have directly supported SMEs to reopen safely through free access to London Growth Hub business support advisers and webinars, and, particularly, the Covid-19 Support Hub on the website. I launchedmy Pay it Forwardcampaign with Crowdfunder and am investing an additional £1m to extend business support to help companies through the crisis and recovery.
I continue to encourage Londoners to safely rediscover their reopened high streets while following social distancing guidance. I relaunched my London is Open campaign to support the reopening of the hospitality sector, while London and Partners built an alliance around the ‘Because I’m a Londoner’ campaign to support consumer confidence.
The Recovery Board, which I co-chairwith Cllr Peter John, will take forward work to support thelong-termrecovery ofLondon’s high streets.My Good Growth by Design guidance launched in January will also support the development of High Streets recovery plans to ensure longer-lasting positive change.
I established a High Streets Reopening Task and Finish group with representatives from a range of local authority services, the Met, licencing experts and business bodies to help coordinate action and additional guidance on the reopening of restaurants, cafes and bars.